Militiamen found guilty; face long sentences
Jun 20, 2012, 01:03 AM USA/ET
Source: Anchorage Daily News
An Anchorage jury convicted Fairbanks militia leader Schaeffer Cox and two of his confederates on most of the charges they faced, leaving them looking at the possibility of long prison terms when they are sentenced in September.
As the verdicts were read aloud Monday by U.S. District Judge Robert Bryan, Cox's eyes darted from juror to juror and then to the full courtroom, returning again to the jurors, and he grew more agitated as the guilty verdicts piled up. The jurors appeared to avert his gaze. When the 21 separate verdicts were in the books and each juror polled by the judge to ensure the record was correct, Cox erupted.
Cox created the Alaska Peacemaker Militia as a uniformed and heavily armed force. At times he described it as a defensive organization, but also declared its members could open fire first on government agents who had drawn down on them. It was also the militia that would implement the "241" plan.
With those organizations, prosecutors said, Cox had created the foundation of an alternative government and the ability to use force to attempt to put in place. The defense argued that Cox never posed an imminent threat to civil order and, with Barney and Vernon, operated within constitutional limits.
Read more: http://www.adn.com/2012/06/18/2510097/militia-jury-deadlocked-on-one.html
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